News from the International Team Committee (ITC)

The 2016/17 ITC selection ended with the completion of the 20m Class Nationals at Narromine, and as usual Narromine turned on the full range of weather reaching over 15,000ft one day and scratchy south westerly conditions the next. As in this competition, all the other competitions throughout the past season have had several pilots vying for World Competition Team selection. As a result, the Pre-World, Juniors and Women’s World Gliding Championships selection is now complete.

Prior to this past season, the ITC has been extremely busy with updates to the selection criteria, much needed reviewing of the ITC fund and revising ITC supporting documents such as Codes of Conduct etc. The updated selection criteria documents have been uploaded on the GFA website. I strongly recommend that all pilots vying for World Gliding Championship (WGC) selection review the selection criteria document applicable to the class of interest.The ITC representatives have essentially remained the same over the past 12 months with Jim Crowhurst representing Multi Class, Eric Stauss representing Juniors and newly appointed Jayrek Mosiejewski representing Club Class. I would like to express a word of thanks for the efforts of Chris Kauffman who has played a pivotal role in ITC over the past few years. I recommend that, if you have questions and/or recommendations for ITC, you refer them to your allocated representative.

ITC Selection Criteria and FundingITC have been working over this past year with revisions to the selection criteria and the ITC funding. The main revisions are summarised below:* Master ranking lists the results of the two selection years. The list is used in descending order to select each pilot. The list is not class specific. The pilot in order of ranking has class choice.* Pre-World selection is allocated to pilots who are ranked in the top two positions of the class to be flown in the WGC. The World Championship class secured at the Pre-World selection is the class that must be flown in the WGC.* Open class will have one ITC funded pilot.* 20m class is not ITC funded.* Women’s ITC funding cuts off at 90%, which used to be 75%, of the score of the highest placed woman pilot on the Master ranking list. One women pilot is ITC funded, although the team captain is not.*Juniors will have two ITC funded pilots and one funded team captain.

2017 World Gliding Championship SelectionITC have completed the selection of the pilots to fly in the Women’s World Gliding Championships (WWGC) in Czech Republic and Junior World Gliding Championships (JWGC) in Lithuania. These championships will be held in the second half of this year. Full details of these competitions can be found on the FAI website. The selection scores can be found in the selection documents on the GFA website.

Women’s Worlds selectionAilsa Mc Millan has been selected to represent Australia at the WWGC.Further GFA funding has been made available to fund two extra women pilots as part of the initiative to support the further development of women pilots’ in preparation for the Lake Keepit WWGC in 2019. The two women pilots that have been selected to take advantage of this GFA funding are Jenny Ganderton and Claire Scutter.

Junior Worlds selectionAilsa Mc Millan and Rueben Lane have been selected to represent Australia at the JWGC. Unfortunately, James Nugent who was originally selected ahead of Rueben has recently withdrawn from the team.

In addition to the prescriptive selection of the two ITC funded pilots, there is also a subjective selection of two Junior pilots. John Buchanan and Bryan Hayhow are central that selection process. This subjective process is detailed in the Selection Criteria documentation.

It has been decided to send two subjectively selected Juniors this year. At the time of writing Dylan Lampard has been selected with the other pilot yet undecided. These two pilots will be funded from the Simon Hackett fund.

Allan Barnes was selected by the Sports Committee out of a strong field to be Team Captain for the Juniors.

2017 Pre-World Gliding Championship SelectionITC have completed the selection of the pilots to fly the Pre-World Gliding Championships (WWGC) in 18m, 15m, Club and 20m Class. The 35th FAI World Gliding Championships for 18m, 20m and Open Class will be held in Czech Republic, and the Club and 15m class will be held in Poland in the second half of 2018. Full details of these competitions can be found on the FAI website. The Pre-World selection scores are detailed in table 1, below.

Pilot

Class

Score

Taylor

Open

98.4

Buchanan

98.3

Claffey

18m

98.37

Buchanan

98.3

O Donnell

15m

96.44

Woolley

94.88

Trotter

Std

98.62

Barnes

97.13

Barnes

Club

95.2

Cubley

93.61

Pilots who are selected and fly in the Pre-Worlds Championships secure their positions in that specific class for the 2018 World Championships. John Buchanan (18m), Adam Woolley (15m), Allan Barnes (Club) and David Jansen (20m) have been selected, and have committed, to fly the 2017 Pre-Worlds, securing their positons in the respective 2018 WGC.Pilots vying for team selection for the 2018 WGC need to take into account that as these four pilots have secured their positions in the respective WGC classes and consequentially in the 2017/2018 Australian competition season. There will be only one pilot selected for each of 18m, 15m and Club team positions. No further pilots will be selected for the 20m Class 2018 WGC.

Team Captain positionsTeam Captains are selected and funded for all ITC funded WGC except the Women’s WGC – the reason is that ITC funds one woman pilot and as such, funding a Team Captain for one pilot is not an effective use of ITC funds. It is anticipated as the ITC fund starts to show signs of growth, which is expected towards 2020, then it is highly likely that ITC fund allocation will be revised, and depending on the size of available woman pilots, will depend on whether more women pilots and a Team Captain will be viable.Team Captains positions are usually advertised either in Gliding Australia magazine or, for short notice situations, via the GFA mail out list. Applications are processed by the Sports Committee and ITC. It is expected that there will be a necessity to select Team Captains for the next round of FAI WGC in 2018 and also, importantly, for the Women’s WGC in Lake Keepit in 2019. These positions will be advertised next season. However, expressions of interest will be gladly received by either Chairman of the Sports Committee or ITC.

Overseas flying – LicensingIn order to fly either for leisure or to compete in a WGC, it will be necessary to obtain the appropriate authorisation to fly. If you intend to fly solo then, in most cases, you will need to obtain a licence from the local National Aviation Authority (NAA).In the past, a letter from GFA, showing your GFA log book or, in some cases, the GPC was sufficient. However, in the current world, post September 11, licensing issues are becoming very complex. In order to avoid surprises when you arrive, it is highly recommended that you contact the NAA of the country of registry of the glider well in advance of your travel regarding the licensing requirements. For exam[le, if you are flying a German registered glider in Poland then in the first instance you will need a German licence validation in order to fly the German registered glider anywhere in Europe – or anywhere else for that matter. If you then fly that glider anywhere else in Europe, you may be ok without any further authorisations but you cannot be 100% certain – check with the competition organisors.It is safest to plan that the NAA will require the pilot to have, as a minimum, a valid ICAO Glider pilot licence (GPL), Class 2 medical and English Language proficiency (ELP) – at least 4. The best way to reduce the likelihood of problems is to obtain a CASA Part 61 Glider Pilot licence. You will need to get a Class 2 Medical – which for some pilots maybe a problem - ELP, and security clearance i.e. ASIC card is recommended. To be issued with a CASA GPL licence you will need a GPC that meets the current GFA syllabus.Pilots selected to fly in the WGC are recommended to start the licencing process well in advance, previous teams have had considerable problems especially in Europe where for example one country will only give a 28-day validation, which for most pilots attending a WGC is not enough time to cover the practice and the competition period.The CASA GPL is usually only issued to Australian glider pilots flying overseas. It is not required for an Australian GFA member to hold a CASA GPL to fly in Austalia.

Future World Gliding ChampionshipsThe International Gliding Commission (IGC) has just recent advised, for safety reasons, changes to the WGC in order to reduce the number of gliders. This will have an effect on Team selection in the future as the number of pilots in some classes is going to be reduced. At the recent IGC Plenary meeting in March the IGC approved the following changes to the WGC from 2022:*18m and Open two entries per class, 1 entry for 20m from 2022*Juniors and Women’s two entries per class, two class from 2022 *Juniors and Women’s competitions combined from 2021 *Club, Std and 15m one pilot per class.

As a result of the changes to the size of the WGC teams, especially in Club, Std and 15m, ITC will be reassessing the ITC fund allocation to decide where that funding can be re-directed.

If you have any questions in relation to ITC matters, then please contact your representative or direct your questions to me.The ITC would like to wish all those pilots participating in international competitions this year safe and successful flying.Safe Flying